Weekly Cinemeh

Hello, and welcome back to Weekly Cinemeh, this week our theme was horror movies. Both of us here love to watch horror, so this week was good. We have talked about how the bulk of horror movies are done poorly so this week we found three horror movies that had some good reviews from horror movie websites. It was a (mostly) good week so without further ado: to the list!

1: You're Next
I heard murmurs about this movie when it was released but never actually saw it. This, I believe, was a grave mistake. This movie takes the classic formula of psychos try to butcher a family in a house in the woods and adds a character that fights back realistically. The character is a former survivalist, so they have the skills to fight back. They basically play a horror movie audience surrogate. You know when you watch a movie and you always get mad at somebody for doing something? How you wish that they would just stab the bad guys? This is that in movie form. Its great. That being said, I have never seen a group of people more detestable. I think they made the family fucked up so you wouldn't feel as bad when they get butchered, but still. The acting was good, which is odd for most horror movies these days, but very nice to see. The movie is great at building tension because the hero is skilled but not invincible, so you are never sure if they will live through a scene. This a good twist on a trope, and any fan of horror will enjoy it.

Eshi: I've gone back and forth on whether I wanted to watch this one for a while. I feel bad about my hesitation. You're Next makes me giddy. Its not particularly scary, leaning on the gore as many tales of human evil do, but where scary comes up short brutality surpasses expectation. Most of the violence is pretty realistic and equally casual and upsetting. The protagonist kicks heaps of ass whilst getting agonizingly punished by both the intruders and to a lesser extent the universe. You're Next was fucking joyous to me, and you can save your judgement for after you've seen it.

2: Here Comes The Devil
This movie is kinda bad, but also kinda good. Its a Mexican film about a family in Tijuana who go on an outing. The family's two kids climb a mountain and get possessed while the parents fondle each others parts while talking about their first (fucking creepy) sexual experiences. The kids go missing and after they are found the family goes home and the possession movie fun begins. There are some odd tonal shifts in this movie. It alternates between softcore porn and horror a little too often. I get why people put tits in horror movies, but this movie goes out of its way to do so, and its a little shocking. The acting was ok, and the story itself was a little easy to guess what was going on. If you take the movie as it represents itself its a little tired, however there is an underlying tone that the kids aren't possessed by the devil, but actually old ones, using human flesh as a way of moving about the world. So that's kinda cool. Its an ok movie, so watch it at your discretion.

Eshi: I'm not entirely sure what to say about this movie. The idea isn't terrible, not super unique but it can be fun. On the other hand, there is a scene where a grown ass woman breathily describes her first summer camp mouth fucking to her husband while he gives her a good old fashioned fingerbang. What I'm saying is that everything about Here Comes the Devil is awkward. From the almost boldly unerotic sex scenes to the camerawork to why the fuck in general any of this is going on: awkward. Not bad, but certainly a two drink minimum.

3: The Taking of Deborah Logan
This movie was also a possession movie, like HCTD, but unlike it was competent. This movie uses Alzheimer's as a way of explaining away the behavior of a possessed person. The basic premise of the movie is that some students are doing a documentary about Alzheimer's and spend some time filming an old lady and her daughter. I had two major issues with this movie. One is that it relies too much on the jump scare, and two, like most of the found footage films the camera is worked into most scenes which takes me out of the movie every once in a while when they make up bullshit to jam it into the scene. That being said, its a good film that builds some good tension. I also love that this movie has one person just say "Fuck this, I'm leaving" and leave the movie. Its a good film that would be good for any fan of horror.

Eshi: Debby Logs is kind of a fucked up story. It uses Alzheimer's to painful effect, simultaneously playing on how disturbing it is to watch that particular struggle and building an honestly upsetting monster. By the time any of the characters start to feel like there might be some sinister shit going on it is entirely too late, which as Brian pointed out leads to the very gratifying "fuck all this noise" from one of the students. The camera is somewhat disappointing, but far from the worst I've seen, and the jump scares were largely unnecessary, though once again easily not the worst I've seen. Give this one a shot some Sunday afternoon.